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When Plants Think Alike
May 28, 2008Biologists have discovered that a fundamental building block in the cells of flowering plants evolved independently, yet almost identically, on a separate branch of the evolutionary tree--in an ancient plant group called lycophytes that originated at least 420 million years ago.
Researchers believe that flowering plants evolved from gymnosperms, the group that includes conifers, ginkgos and related plants. This group split from lycophytes hundreds of millions of years before flowering plants appeared.
The building block, called syringyl lignin, is a critical part of the plants' scaffolding and water-transport systems. It apparently emerged separately in the two plant groups, much like flight arose separately in both bats and birds.
Purdue University researcher Clint Chapple and graduate students Jing-Ke Weng and Jake Stout, along with post-doctoral research associate Xu Li, conducted the study with the support of the National Science Foundation, publishing their findings in the May 20, 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We're excited about this work not only because it may provide another tool with which we can manipulate lignin deposition in plants used for biofuel production, but because it demonstrates that basic research on plants not used in agriculture can provide important fundamental findings that are of practical benefit," said Chapple.
The plant studied--Selaginella moellendorffii, an ornamental plant sold at nurseries as spike moss--came from Purdue colleague Jody Banks. While not a co-author on the paper, Banks helped kick-start the study of the Selaginella genome with NSF support in 2002, and is now scientific coordinator for the plant's genome-sequencing effort conducted by the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif.
"Because Selaginella is a relict of an ancient vascular plant lineage, its genome sequence will provide the plant community with a resource unlike any other, as it will allow them to discover the genetic underpinnings of the evolutionary innovations that allowed plants to thrive on land, including lignin," said Banks.
Chapple and his colleagues conducted the recent study as part of a broader effort to understand the genetics behind lignin specifically, as the material is an impediment to some biofuel production methods because of its durability and tight integration into plant structures.
"Findings from studies such as this really have implications regarding the potential for designing plants to better make use of cellulose in cell walls," said Gerald Berkowitz, a program director for the Physiological and Structural Systems Cluster at the National Science Foundation and the program officer overseeing Chapple's grant. "Different forms of lignin are present in crop plant cell walls; engineering plants to express specifically syringyl lignin could allow for easier break down of cellulose. Overcoming this obstacle is an important next step for advancing second generation biofuel production."
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Purdue University researcher Clint Chapple and graduate students Jing-Ke Weng and Jake Stout, along with post-doctoral research associate Xu Li, conducted the study with the support of the National Science Foundation, publishing their findings in the May 20, 2008, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
"We're excited about this work not only because it may provide another tool with which we can manipulate lignin deposition in plants used for biofuel production, but because it demonstrates that basic research on plants not used in agriculture can provide important fundamental findings that are of practical benefit," said Chapple.
The plant studied--Selaginella moellendorffii, an ornamental plant sold at nurseries as spike moss--came from Purdue colleague Jody Banks. While not a co-author on the paper, Banks helped kick-start the study of the Selaginella genome with NSF support in 2002, and is now scientific coordinator for the plant's genome-sequencing effort conducted by the Department of Energy Joint Genome Institute in Walnut Creek, Calif.
"Because Selaginella is a relict of an ancient vascular plant lineage, its genome sequence will provide the plant community with a resource unlike any other, as it will allow them to discover the genetic underpinnings of the evolutionary innovations that allowed plants to thrive on land, including lignin," said Banks.
Chapple and his colleagues conducted the recent study as part of a broader effort to understand the genetics behind lignin specifically, as the material is an impediment to some biofuel production methods because of its durability and tight integration into plant structures.
"Findings from studies such as this really have implications regarding the potential for designing plants to better make use of cellulose in cell walls," said Gerald Berkowitz, a program director for the Physiological and Structural Systems Cluster at the National Science Foundation and the program officer overseeing Chapple's grant. "Different forms of lignin are present in crop plant cell walls; engineering plants to express specifically syringyl lignin could allow for easier break down of cellulose. Overcoming this obstacle is an important next step for advancing second generation biofuel production."
The National Science Foundation (NSF)
Flowering Plants Current Events and Flowering Plants News RSSIn the war between the sexes, the one with the closest fungal relationship wins
The war between the sexes has been fought on many fronts throughout time-from humans to birds to insects, the animal kingdom is replete with species involved in their own skirmishes.
Common weed could provide clues on aging and cancer
A common weed and human cancer cells could provide some very uncommon details about DNA structure and its relationship with telomeres and how they affect cellular aging and cancer, according to a team led by scientists from Texas A&M University and the University of Cincinnati (UC).
Secrets in a seed: Clues into the evolution of the first flowers
Approximately 120-130 million years ago, one of the most significant events in the history of the Earth occurred: the first flowering plants, or angiosperms, arose.
Genome duplication responsible for more plant species than previously thought
Extra genomes appear, on average, to offer no benefit or disadvantage to plants, but still play a key role in the origin of new species, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Ferns took to the trees and thrived
As flowering plants like giant trees quickly rose to dominate plant communities during the Cretaceous period, the ferns that had preceded them hardly saw it as a disappointment.
CU-Boulder study shows 53 million-year-old high Arctic mammals wintered in darkness
Ancestors of tapirs and ancient cousins of rhinos living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year in a far milder climate than today that featured lush, swampy forests.
The evolutionary foundation of genomic imprinting in lower vertebrates
A Chinese scientist group working in College of Life Science, Zhejiang University, has shown that, as mammalian Igf2 CpG island, goldfish Igf2 CpG island has a parental differentially methylated region (DMR).
Coffee cultivation good for diversity in agrarian settlements but not in forests
Coffee shrubs, both in themselves and because they are most often cultivated in the shade of large trees, can have a positive impact on plant and animal diversity in those parts of the landscape that are deforested and dominated by agriculture.
Protea plants help unlock secrets of species 'hotspots'
New species of flowering plants called proteas are exploding onto the scene three times faster in parts of Australia and South Africa than anywhere else in the world, creating exceptional 'hotspots' of species richness, according to new research published today in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS).
Plants grow bigger and more vigorously through changes in their internal clocks
Hybrid plants, like corn, grow bigger and better than their parents because many of their genes for photosynthesis and starch metabolism are more active during the day, report researchers from The University of Texas at Austin in a new study published in the journal Nature.
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